The Dream
by matthewsbj
Summary: Set at the end of season 4.  For the purposes of this story, the Cohens  Ryan included  have moved into the Berkeley house a little earlier then in the finale.  Sandy and Kirsten make a nighttime visit to the boys and are enlightened a bit.


_For the purposes of this story, the Cohens (Ryan included) have moved into the Berkley house before Kirsten has Sophie and Seth leaves for RISD. They've been in the house for about a week. Everything else is the same._

Sandy had his arm around his wife as they made their way into their youngest son's room. He smiled as he realized he would very shortly have to start referring to him as their middle child.

He knew that both his sons were past the age of needing to be checked on at night, and that if they knew about their nightly visits the past couple of nights, they would surely be told that.

At first, he tried telling Kirsten that. But, a very pregnant Kirsten was not to be deterred. He thought to himself, but for fear of his life would never tell her, that the pregnant, hormonal version of The Kirsten was _much_ more frightening then the regular version.

Now, though, that he saw his sons in this new light, peaceful in slumber, he was so happy that his wife forced these nighttime visits.

They had previous visited Seth's room and he had been sprawled out covering the whole bed. They almost had a hard time telling where limbs ended and crumpled up bed sheets started. Moving boxes still littered the room, and CD's, clothes, and whatnot were strewn over just about every surface in the room. They would have liked to have blamed that on the fact the he would be leaving soon for college and he didn't want to unpack everything just to repack it all. But, they knew their oldest son, and knew that that was who he was.

As they watched him sleep, Sandy had to fight back his emotions as he thought how very shortly he would be sending his oldest son off to college almost on the other side of the country. He had his arm around Kirsten so he could feel her trembling. He knew she was battling similar emotions even more so. Even though they were sad with his imminent departure, they were also extremely proud of him. They were so happy that he was going to a school he wanted to for something that he truly enjoyed.

Now, as they watched Ryan sleep, it amazed them both how different both boys were, but yet how close they were. While Seth was sprawled everywhere, it was as though Ryan hadn't moved since he had fallen asleep. Despite their differences, they were closer than most siblings. Both parents were so happy that they had each other. They complimented each other so well; Ryan had given Seth the courage to come out of his shell while Seth was able to reign in his brother from his anger.

Sandy also felt a swell of pride as he thought about him attending his alma mater. They were both happy that both sons would be attending college.

They were just about to head back to their own room when they heard Ryan start to mutter something in his sleep. Sandy quietly joked to his wife that Seth must really be rubbing off on Ryan. That earned him a soft slap to his chest and a terse "Hush!"

Kirsten moved closer to Ryan's bed as she realized he wasn't mumbling unintelligibly any more, but rather he seemed to be talking in his sleep. Sandy joined her as Ryan started talking in a muffled, sleepy voice.

"Yeah, I'm here with my whole family: my parents and my brother. My brother's over there by the dessert table. He's a really great artist. You should see him draw sometime. He actually had his own comic book, or I'm sorry, graphic novel for a little bit. It's what actually got him into RISD. He'll be starting there in the fall. It's going to be weird not having him around. I think I'm really going to miss him. Probably a good thing that I'll be starting Berkley in fall, too. Keep me a little distracted. Mom and Dad wanted me to have the college experience, so they wanted me to live on campus, but I'm glad that they're only 10 minutes away.

"My Dad's over there; he's a lawyer. He worked in the PD's office, a couple of times actually. Now that we're in Berkeley, he's going to be teaching a couple of classes. I think it will be cool to have my dad on campus. Definitely an excuse to come home more often. I might even take one of his classes. I don't know, though….

"That's my Mom next to him. Back in Newport she used to run the Newport Group, a real estate development company. After her father died, she and Dad decided to sell it. She was home a lot more, and it was nice. As you can tell, she's about 8 months pregnant. It's kind of hard to imagine that very soon, there'll be a little baby in our lives. I'm actually looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to being a big brother.

"All in all, I've got a great family and I love them all."

Ryan's dream apparently was over as he started back into gibberish, then shifted slightly in the bed and returned to silence.

Sandy and Kirsten just stood there….stunned. They looked at each with big, goofy grins on their faces, and Kirsten had tears running down her cheeks. They were so happy to have had this glimpse into their son's feelings for them. It wasn't anything really that they didn't already know, but it was still nice to hear.

Kirsten made her way over to Ryan's bed and sat down softly on the edge so as not to disturb him. With one hand she was wiping her tears away, and the other she tenderly placed on her son's arm resting on his chest on top of the covers.

Sandy joined his wife at the bed and gingerly sat down behind her. However, he wasn't as stealth as his wife was and the bed creaked a little under him. Ryan started to stir, as a result, and soon they saw two tired blue eyes looking at them, not with a little confusion.

He blinked groggily at them as he was trying to get his bearings. When he realized who was sitting on his bed, he sat up worried and urgently asked them, "Is something wrong with the baby?"

Kirsten tried desperately to allay his fears, "No, honey! Everything's ok. The baby's fine and so am I."

He tried to get his heart to slow down and keep from beating out of his chest. "Oh, ok. Good." He tried to wipe some of the sleep from his eyes. He furrowed his brows in confusion. "What are you guys doing here then?"

"Can't a mother check on her son in the middle of the night?" she tried to look hurt.

Ryan chortled slightly at that. "Seriously? You do realize that this isn't the pool house, that I'm 18, not 8, and that I start college in a couple of months?"

She put her hands on her hips and looked at him in mock indignation, "And do you realize, young man, that none of that matter? You are our son, living under our roof, and I will check on you whenever I want to check on you!"

Sandy chuckled and shook his head ruefully, "Kid, you better surrender. There's no use fighting with The Kirsten when she's pregnant."

Ryan put his hands up in surrender, "You're right. I give up!"

Kirsten smiled satisfactorily over her shoulder at her husband and back at her son.


End file.
